Automated Bill Analysis System for Real-Time Error Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for analyzing customer bills, such as cell phone bills, are time-consuming and require significant knowledge of billing companies' rate plans, often relying on paper invoices and manual data conversion, and fail to utilize electronic bills directly for real-time error analysis and utilization evaluation.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that loads public and current market information on a third-party server, creates individual data fields and patterns for multiple billing companies, and analyzes electronic bills in real-time for errors, generating reports and summaries to improve future analysis accuracy without requiring additional input from customers or billing companies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual analysis methods are used with paper invoices and data conversion, then customers can analyze their bills for errors, but the process becomes time-consuming and requires significant knowledge of billing rate plans
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processes (paper invoice handling, manual data conversion, manual analysis) with an automated computer-based system that electronically processes bills, extracts data using optical character recognition, and performs automated analysis against stored rate plan information, thereby eliminating the time-consuming manual steps while maintaining analysis accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-loading and storing billing company rate plans and pricing information in a database before analysis is needed. This allows the automated system to immediately compare electronic bill data against known rate structures without requiring real-time human expertise, thus reducing analysis time while preserving accuracy
2Ease of operation
If manual data conversion from paper invoices is performed, then bill data can be analyzed, but the process requires significant customer effort and knowledge
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex mechanical process of manual data conversion from paper invoices with an automated optical character recognition system that electronically captures and converts bill data. This substitution simplifies the customer's task to merely submitting the electronic bill while the system handles the complex conversion and processing automatically
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service by automatically extracting data from electronic bills, converting the information into usable formats, and processing it without requiring customer intervention in the complex conversion steps. The customer simply submits the bill and receives analysis results, while the system independently handles all intermediate processing complexity
3Productivity
If real-time electronic bill analysis is implemented, then analysis speed improves, but the system requires extensive market information and data infrastructure
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-collecting, storing, and organizing billing company rate plans, pricing structures, and market information in a database before analysis is required. This advance preparation enables rapid real-time analysis by allowing the system to immediately compare electronic bill data against pre-loaded reference information, achieving high productivity without requiring complex real-time data gathering infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a database as an intermediary layer between the electronic bill input and the analysis process. This database stores and manages the extensive market information and rate plan data, serving as a mediator that provides structured access to the information needed for rapid analysis without requiring the analysis engine to directly manage the complexity of data collection and organization
Data Source
AI summary
A computer software method implemented on a computer for real-time analysis of a company's bill, such as a cell phone bill, by submitting a bill, generated by the billing company in electronic format, over the Internet, using computer loaded published public and current market information for selected billing companies. The computer advises the bill submitter, in real-time, by providing a report for submission to said billing company for correction and adds report to a blind summary in memory of generated reports by type of errors for billing companies from previous analysis for each billing company's collective errors and uses the collective summary for each billing company to enhance and improve future bill analysis on the computer and to provide a summary for each billing company.